How do YOU find inactive players?

Discussion in 'Guild Strategies' started by Kelani, Nov 11, 2014.

  1. Kelani

    Kelani Commodore

    There hasn't been much said about this, so I thought it'd be nice to share some ideas. As we know, until Midoki adds Last Active or other useful info to each player's entry in the Guild Ledger, we have to be very creative to find out which guild members have been eaten by a Bigger Fish. Before I start, I have a question for the @Chris [Midoki] or anyone who knows for sure:

    1. When a player's town is fully destroyed, does it:
    a) reset once their shield runs out, or
    b) stay destroyed until that player logs in again?

    2. What about a partially destroyed town?


    Since this seems to be the best way we have for telling inactive players, it's important we know for sure. I've been assuming that the town stays destroyed. If that's wrong, then my bootprint may unjustly be on a lot of pirates backsides. Anyway, here's how I tell who's inactive. If any of you do something different, I'd love to hear about it.

    1. Create a Spreadsheet. Yes, this seems like a pain to add 50 people and constantly maintain it, and it really is, but it's still a great way to manage things. I strongly recommend convincing your first mates and crew to help you maintain it. If you can get a few people to look at a few bases, and update the sheet each week. your scan for inactives only takes a few minutes. You can create a free spreadsheet at Google Docs, make it editable by anyone with the link, then share that with everyone in your guild. (Definitely use an URL shortening service if you're pasting the link in Guild Chat!) I've also added a link to a template below.

    In my spreadsheet, I use the following fields:

    Status: (poss. values: Blank, W, X?, X) This is each player's kick status. Blank=OK. W=Watch, X?=May need a kick, and X=Kick.
    PR: Their pirate rank. Only used to track huge losses since last check. Not intended to be kept accurate
    Name: Their Pirate name
    Last Active: The last date they were seen online, in chat or can be deduced by whether they're upgrading.
    Upgrading: (values: Y, N) Just shows who was upgrading at last base check
    Town Status: (values: Blank, Partial,Destroyed) Their town at last check. When I see a destroyed town, I make a note of the date in the Notes column. If this never changes after a week, I assume they haven't logged in.
    GR: Their Guild Rank. Alternatively, you can use different colors for each rank in the Name column.
    Chat Warn: Number of warnings I've issued an annoying player in chat. Keeps track of repeat-offenders.
    Notes: General info about that player. Some things I include:
    -Join Date (great for seniority-based promotions)
    -Promotion date
    -When their base was destroyed
    -If they're on vacation, and when they'll be back.
    -If they've ever chatted
    -How full their storages look
    -Who's a Lady Pirate (I have my reasons!)
    -Who I need to recheck soon.


    Here's a
    Free Spreadsheet Template on Google Docs that's exactly like the one above. You can Download it in whatever format you want for offline use, or download and add it to your own Google Docs for shared use by your Guild.

    (note: any problems with the link, let me know.)

    2. Use Crew as Lookouts. You can't always be online, so if you have a lot of crew in chat, ask them to keep an eye on the guild roster, looking for people they never see online. At the end of the week, collect those names, and check their bases out.

    3. Use the MOTD (Message of the Day). Since I'm a First Mate, I can't do this, and I really wish I could. If you update this message constantly, and encourage people to check it, you can use it to find inactives. Simply post a note like "Want to stay in the guild? Stop by chat and check in before X Date" Make sure any crew who see someone make a note of it. This doesn't work so great with players who don't speak your language, or who don't ever visit the Guild screen, though.

    4. Keep an eye on Pirate Rank. Since people love to drop rank when saving for a big upgrade, this isn't a great indicator, but it can be useful. If you have a player who has dropped waaay down the list, check them out. Some inactive people sign on, but don't play.

    5. Set up a Group. Whether on forums, FB or even a chat room that keeps the history, These can be good for sharing info about inactives. It's also good to discuss strategies, and serve as an emergency contact method in the event someone gets accidentally kicked.

    I'm sure there are a lot more ways to do this tedious job, so I'll leave the floor open to you guys.
    How do you check for inactive players?
     
    Last edited: Nov 16, 2014
    Gangrene Beard likes this.
  2. Bear

    Bear Commodore

    Our guild has done #3 in the past.
     
  3. Kelani

    Kelani Commodore

    Wow, really? Nobody has any other tips for finding inactive players? Do y'all just say "hey! he looks inactive!" and flip a coin? :D
     
  4. Bear

    Bear Commodore

    Lol. You have a pretty comprehensive post.
     
  5. Kelani

    Kelani Commodore

    @Bear Guess I also have those completionist issues. :D Darn. I was really hoping someone would post a magic strategy that would make my life easier.
     
  6. Hajkja

    Hajkja Crew

    We just went through a tidy up using all the methods you mentioned. It's very time consuming and open to debate. Your list covers it all and using these different methods helps be fair and give transparency to the process.

    But ultimately for me i had my doubts if I had made the right call, which is not a good position to be in. we need a) devs give us some tools b) ppls chat more regularly or use the forums set up for them.

    Tools: last date signed on, last date upgraded building.

    Reasons to chat: With 1 hour troup builds and 3 day build times, It's getting harder and harder to keep the conversation flowing on chat,we really a subplot that keeps people engaged and wanting or needing to use chat. Our guild is very active on chat, we are lucky from what i hear, long may it last, a bit of help would be great pls :)
     
  7. Kelani

    Kelani Commodore

    @Hajkja Yeah, I hate having to do it this way. Even after I know someone's been inactive for over a week, and kick them, I'll view their bases in the guild log just to make sure. So far, I haven't been wrong, but, it'd be better to know.

    The communication breakdown from the messaging/chat limitations seems to be why so many of us are jumping to moreforum. Plus, there's so many people in different time zones, it's nearly impossible to get info out to everyone.

    Semi-related note about Moreforum: MY GOD that site really needs to hire a native English speaker, and fix the templates so each post doesn't take up an entire screen.
     
    .Lord M€G/\T|2ON. likes this.
  8. Bear

    Bear Commodore

    Haha. I wish one did exist. Like a "kick inactive members" button
     
  9. Bear

    Bear Commodore

    A lot of the more active forum members are in our groupme group. ( link o join is in a thread on general discussion). Then me and the captain use a private chat where we keep a running list of possible inactive members. We also have to rely on active members keeping an eye out. We have members from all around the world.
     
  10. mana

    mana Crew

    The answer on your first question is B and its the same with partially destroyed islands, but when their shield runs out they are open to be attacked again and their rank might drop or rise again without them logging in. So I guess rank is pretty much useless when it comes to check whether a player is active or not. You could give all the members a fair amount of time to reach a certain lvl based on ph, tavern, academy, weapons or anything else you guys find important.
     
  11. Kelani

    Kelani Commodore

    @mana thanks so much for the answer. The Partial ones were what most confused me. Sometimes, you'll have a partially-destroyed town, slowly losing rank each day, but the number and type of destroyed building never changes,.

    I don't set any rank/PH targets for my guild. I'll make plenty of suggestions, but that's all they are. :) The only thing I use rank for is to look for any slow declines over time. When I check an island, I put their current rank in the spreadsheet, along with the other stuff. At the end of the week, if nothing's changed, I consider them inactive and out they go. If something does change, they go on the watch list for another week. Watch list players are checked daily to see how many days they actually play.
     
  12. mana

    mana Crew

    I know what you mean I was at first too, glad I could help. Woa that sounds like a lot of work for each member, you should get paid for that haha! About the rank just keep in mind that it can change even when one doesn't log in.
     
  13. Kelani

    Kelani Commodore

    Initially, it was a LOT of work. But as we weed out all the inactives, the time it takes drops to almost nothing. I don't check bases of any regular chatters or people i've seen online. Mostly, it's just the new people (been in 1-3 weeks). Every cleanout usually catches a few more, and your active player count steadily goes up.

    Cleanout 1: 18
    Cleanout 2: 9
    Cleanout 3: 5
    Cleanout 4: 6
    Cleanout 5: 3
    Cleanout 6: 2

    Barring any regulars dropping off the face of the planet, at some point, there should be no need for regular checks.
     
  14. mana

    mana Crew

    Looking good!, lets see how many players will stay active as the game gets harder and asks for more patience. :p
     
  15. Kelani

    Kelani Commodore

    Right now, my biggest threat is a mass-rage quit from some of my higher level guys who just realized that you can train more than one pirate at a time in the academy. They've been wasting time and ditching grog for weeks, and weren't thrilled to learn that :D
     
    Gangrene Beard likes this.
  16. :eek:nooooooooooo!!!!!
     
  17. PrettyInPink

    PrettyInPink Powder Monkey

    So I take it you're loving the new update.. Because that spread sheet seems like work!
     
    Kelani likes this.
  18. Kelani

    Kelani Commodore

    Well, the update came out the day I went on vacation, so this is the first day I've had to really play it. It is a good thing, though. I found that I only had one inactive player, which was surprising. The spreadsheet at the time showed like 4-5 players who I thought were inactive, but weren't. So, I'm afraid that I may have kicked a few "technically" active players over the last few months. :( I don't think they were playing, really, just signing on, collecting from collectors, and signing off, but still..

    I'm still going to keep using the spreadsheet for now. The update definitely makes it easy to see who's not signing on, but the sheet also tracks which perks people build, whether they chat, their rank improvement over time, locations, personal notes, chat warnings, and who's been kicked (and why), so we don't let them back in :)
     
  19. Landon

    Landon First Mate

    Another, reason why we should wars. You'll find out if they're inactive if they don't go into battle every 3 days. But yes, we keep a spreadsheet to keep up with all this.
     
  20. PrettyInPink

    PrettyInPink Powder Monkey

    Haha we had a member that hadn't been active in 46 days... We kicked out about 8-9 people that hadn't been active over 15 days. Every now and then we'll check but we're sitting at 45 people so they aren't taking up too much space. Once we get back up to 50 we'll start being picky again.

    The backers have helped also but I just wish it would tell you how much someone has contributed overall to the perks. And a lot of times I miss who backed some perks because it gets filled so quickly.
     
    Gangrene Beard and Kelani like this.

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